It’s a bit cliché, but Washtenaw Community College alumnus Derek Sanborn truly is
living his dream.
That dream? Owning his own business.
The Pinckney native, now 36 years old and living in Vienna, Va. just outside Washington D.C., is founder and CEO of PatientStudio, a digital management platform serving smaller medical care providers and their patients.
“I’ve always wanted to own my own business,” Sanborn said. “Even as a teen, a friend of mine and I bought three computers and started a software business.”
For Sanborn, WCC was the right place at the right time for him to start his college journey. Most importantly, it was an opportunity to get off to a debt-free start.
His father encouraged him to go to college and earn a degree that would help him achieve his dream. But he also put the onus on him to pay his own way.
With a Michigan Merit Award scholarship, he was able to attend WCC, graduate in 2005 and then transfer to Michigan State University where he earned a degree in business.
“I hold WCC and MSU in high regard,” Sanborn said. “I think back to the resources and the classes that were available to me at WCC and I am grateful.”
After college, he received an offer to move to the D.C. area for a job with a tech company. After four years there, he decided it was time to go out on his own.
His firm, PatientStudio, provides a variety of healthcare providers with a patient management platform to “streamline operations and enhance the patient experience,” according to the company's website.
The company’s software platform makes it easier and faster to schedule appointments, send out reminders and ease paper work for patients and staff.
“Moving smaller medical offices to this platform is what a new generation will expect to encounter,” Sanborn said. “They don’t want to talk on the phone to schedule or discuss anything.”
The free tools PatientStudio offers, he said, will help the smaller medical office cope but also, in the future, may lead to a long-term paying partnership with the company.
As for the future, Sanborn, ever the entrepreneur, only smiles: “There could be other opportunities out there.”